


Teamwork

by Fabrisse



Category: Glee
Genre: Dalton Academy, Gen, M/M, warblers - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-08
Updated: 2013-03-08
Packaged: 2017-12-04 15:27:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,861
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/712282
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fabrisse/pseuds/Fabrisse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sports are required at Dalton or How Kurt joined the soccer team.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Teamwork

**Author's Note:**

> This was written as a response to [this post](http://glee-angst-meme.livejournal.com/26699.html?thread=16097355#t16097355) at the Glee Angst Meme on LJ. It’s not very angsty. Since in my early days in the fandom, I had Dalton as a boarding school (as did a lot of people), I decided to keep it a boarding school for this story.

Wes motioned for Kurt to stay after the Warblers’ practice. Blaine shot Kurt a questioning look, but accepted it when Kurt shrugged and shooed him off.

Thad had already left, but David hung back, too.

“Kurt, I have the list of participants for the performance in three weeks. Your name is on provisionally and will be removed…” Wes held up his hands to stop the protest he could see forming. “Not by me, by the Headmaster. You still aren’t playing a sport. It’s required. While I’d love to see you try out for lacrosse…”

Kurt said, “Lacrosse. Is that the one where they…?” He made some odd gestures that Wes finally interpreted as handling the stick.

“Er, yes. Yes it is.”

“It seems kind of violent.”

Wes nodded. “Second only to football.” He managed to sound proud.

“I’ve played football. Does your team need a kicker? I helped McKinley win a game last year by kicking.”

David said, “No football team. Although, we do have swimming and track and field, but…”

Wes said, “Or if you’re worried about the level of competition, I’m sure one of the house teams will be happy to claim you.”

David interrupted, “ _But_ I’m here to make a plea for the soccer team. We had two injuries in the last game, and we’re nearly down to our limit. If we don’t have enough players, we can’t complete our season. The practices might interest you, and you’ll probably spend the games on the bench since you’re so new.”

“What does Blaine play?”

Wes and David smiled at each other, then David said, “Rugby.”

Kurt said, “I thought you had to be big, and maybe have an Australian accent to play that.”

Wes said, “Blaine’s small, but tough. Their season just ended, and he’ll be on the house boxing team come winter term.”

“I assume taking yoga classes is out?”

Wes said, “It has to be a team sport. Fencing is available, if you prefer something warm and dry.”

David glared at him, “But soccer really needs you. I can take you to see the coach right now.”

Kurt thought for a moment and sighed. “Sure, David. You’ve been a good friend. The least I can do is catch a cold running in the mud for you.”

Wes smiled.

David laughed and clapped him on the back. “I’m sure you’ll regret this. But thank you so much.”

***  
Mister Grossman was a math teacher who also coached soccer for Dalton Academy. He greeted Kurt cordially, and Kurt had been amazed at how formally everyone addressed each other at Dalton, and asked Kurt if he’d be willing to show up the following morning at seven to try out.

Kurt mentally revised his morning routine and quickly agreed.

The following morning he was there in a pair of Dalton sweat pants and an old OSU sweatshirt of Burt’s. He joined the team for their two mile run without being asked and ran a couple of footwork drills before Mister Grossman called him over.

“Kurt, you can obviously keep up with the others. I’m certain Mister Kingston has told you of our predicament. To be in good standing on the team you must attend all practices unless you have a sick card from the nurse or an extenuating circumstance cleared in advance. For instance, you are not expected to attend Tuesday afternoon practices as that’s when the Warblers meet. The Warblers know to schedule extra practices at lunch hour or in the evening so as not to disrupt team sports. Do you have any questions?”

Kurt said, “What is the practice schedule?”

Mister Grossman smiled. “Of course. Daily run at seven a.m. You must conform to Dalton’s dress code which means that by tomorrow you should have a white or navy blue t-shirt and a Dalton sweatshirt instead of an OSU one for the run. I see you didn’t neglect to shave this morning. It could get you a demerit if you don't. On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, we also have speed drills and plyometric training, as you can see. Tuesdays and Thursdays we go inside for weight training. Games are on Friday evenings or during the day on Saturday. Monday through Thursday afternoons there’s a one hour game style practice, although occasionally, I will run drills if I feel we’re weak in a particular area.”

Kurt seemed a little overwhelmed. “So, you want me to be here at three-thirty this afternoon for practice, and I should have a Dalton sweatshirt by then?”

“Tomorrow is fine for the sweatshirt, Mister Hummel. Welcome to the team.”

***  
The first week was a little overwhelming for Kurt. Mister Grossman paired him up with David for weight training and asked David to help him with footwork drills in the afternoon practices. He sat through Saturday’s game on the bench, and asked questions about the play of everyone from the water boy to the coach.

The following week, Kurt was tried at a different position in each of the after school games. After a little bit of discussion, and a lot more footwork drilling with the forwards and the midfield, Mister Grossman talked to the team’s co-captains about strategy. 

In Friday night’s game, Kurt was put on the field toward the end of the second half to act as a sweeper. He managed to get the ball away from one of LaSalle’s defenders and assisted to David who scored the winning goal.

Kurt was shocked to find himself hoisted up on his teammates’ shoulders along with David when the game was over. The team went out to Breadstix to celebrate their win.

When they got there, Kurt saw his Dad’s car in the parking lot. He asked permission from Mister Grossman to go find his family for a minute before joining the team dinner.

“Hey, kid!” Burt stood up and hugged his son. “What are you doing here?”

“We won our soccer game -- celebration dinner.”

Carole said, “That’s great, Kurt. Are you enjoying playing on the team?”

“More than I thought I would, actually.”

“Yeah, you weren’t too happy about getting dirty and stuff last year,” Finn said.

“True. I think soccer makes more sense to me as a game. It’s always moving.”

Burt and Finn nodded a little absently. 

Kurt asked, “How’s football going?”

“Bieste is good. We only lost by one point last week, which is a lot better than last year. We’ve already won two games, too. I think we have a shot at top of our league next year.”

“That’s great. Look, we’re playing on Saturday afternoon next weekend. Do you guys want to come? It’s a home game.”

Burt clasped his shoulder. “We got tickets to the OSU game next weekend. Maybe the following weekend?”

Kurt smiled. “Sure, Dad.” He hugged his father and kissed Carole on the cheek before heading over to the team table. 

As he was finishing his whole wheat capellini pomodoro, his Dad came over and greeted Mister Grossman asking him to send a copy of the team’s game schedule to his work email. Kurt beamed as he waved goodbye to his dad.

***  
The following weekend, the Warblers were on the center line cheering the soccer team; some of them even had yellow warblers painted on one cheek and red cardinals (the name of the Dalton sports teams) on their other. Blaine was in the middle of them all leading songs about how hot their boyfriends were, amidst much eye rolling. 

The game was perfect. Scoreless at the end of the first half, the Cardinals put Kurt in for the second half and he helped block one try on their goal, and assisted one of the co-captains in the first of two goals. They won 2-0.

Blaine came running up to him after the game and lifted him off his feet in a hug. “You were great. You looked like you were dancing out there, but the really good dancing, not just jerking around on the dance floor. Here!” He held out a pint of low-fat chocolate milk. “I read online that this is one of the best things you can have to replenish your salts after a tough game. You’ll still need to drink a lot of water, but I know how you hate Gatorade.”

“Blaine, slow down. Thank you.” Kurt opened the chocolate milk and swigged some down. “That is good.” He sighed and sipped some more. “Do you always come to the games?”

Blaine shrugged. “No, but the Warblers try to make about half the home games for any team. They support my rugby and Wes’s lacrosse, too. It’s just… being a fan is fun. It’s even more fun when we know the players. You really did look great.”

“Well, David and Mister Grossman have really concentrated on my footwork skills.”

Blaine hugged him again, “Well, I can’t believe you’ve only been on the team three weeks. I’m going to see if we can get a group together to hit the game in Cleveland next weekend.”

Kurt grinned. “You can only come if you promise me chocolate milk again. It’s amazing how much forty-five minutes of running around can take out of you.”

The soccer and lacrosse teams (they’d also won their game that morning) had pizza in the senior common room with a sundae station as a treat for dessert that night. Kurt snuck a big bowl of coffee ice cream with caramel topping to Blaine before movie night started for any boarding student staying in. They shared one of the big chairs and watched _Pirates of the Caribbean 3_ among a crowd of laughing boys. 

***  
“Yeah, I know. You don’t want to leave the shop uncovered two weekends running. It’s all right, Dad. The game’s all the way in Cleveland. We have to leave right after school to make it on time for the game.”

He listened for a couple of minutes as his Dad told him all about Finn’s football game on Saturday.

“It sounds good. I may drive up to see it, since I’ll be missing Friday dinner.”

“Sounds great, kid. I miss you. That school still treating you right?” his dad asked.

“It is. See you on Saturday.”

“Good night, Kurt.”

***  
Kurt talked Blaine into coming to McKinley to see the game on Saturday. David came along, too as his girlfriend was entering her mid-term week and said she needed to study without distractions.

He found his Dad and Carole up in the stands and hugged them both before introducing David and Blaine to them. 

McKinley won which put them over the fifty percent mark for the season – much better than the previous year. Burt took all of them, and Rachel and Puck, to Breadstix to celebrate how well the team was doing. 

David watched them, listened to how proud Burt Hummel was of both his sons – he was thrilled with Kurt’s grades and the stories he told from the Warblers – and tried to figure out what he thought was off about the dynamic. It wasn’t until Burt was walking the Dalton boys to Blaine’s car that David got it.

“Hey, Kurt, I forgot to ask. Did you guys win your game last night?”

“Yeah, Dad. We went into overtime, and won at the beginning of the second overtime period.”

David said, “Kurt actually scored his first ever goal last night.”

Kurt grinned. “I wish you’d been there, Dad. We aren’t playing next weekend, but we’re driving to Toledo for two matches the following weekend. Maybe you could come to the Saturday game?”

“Maybe I can. Let me check with Carole. I keep feeling like there’s something going on that weekend.”

Kurt nodded, a little more subdued now. “I’m glad she’s taken over keeping the calendar. You were a disaster when you tried to do it after Mom died.”

“I was lucky to have you be so organized.” Burt hugged his son tightly. “You boys drive safely. Stop for coffee if you need to.”

David and Blaine shook hands with him, and they all headed back to Dalton.

***  
They lost both games in Toledo, so Kurt wasn’t too upset that Burt and Carole were at the Mechanics Association meeting in Detroit that weekend. 

Mister Grossman pulled him into a meeting with the co-captains on the bus back to Westerville. Their opponents, St. John’s Jesuit, had adapted their play to box Kurt in as sweeper. He was seen as a threat and a key player which meant Dalton was going to have to figure out how to keep him unboxed. He enjoyed the strategy session and even suggested a couple of their teammates who could be useful in the discussion. By the time they got back to Dalton, after stopping at LuLu’s for pie, they’d mapped out some changes to their training for the next week to help make the changes work.

By the time he went home for Christmas, Kurt was talking about soccer nearly as much as he was talking about music or fashion or Blaine.

***  
Kurt wanted to go to Rachel’s party, but he hadn’t expected how much being on the soccer team would limit his choices – or how much waiting for Blaine to finally see him would hurt.

He hated that they’d fought, over Rachel Berry, no less, and he took out his frustrations in his training. He tried to do everything faster, harder, and Mister Grossman kept telling him that it won’t work unless it’s also more accurate, more elegant. 

Elegant meant a lot to Kurt, usually, but right now he just wanted exhaustion because that might take the pain away.

David pulled him aside and drilled him in footwork, going back to his first days on the team. It was fast, but delicate work. Kurt had gotten better, so David could push it up a notch or two. Mister Grossman smiled at them both, and, as he was doing his evening yoga before bed, Kurt realized he’d gotten his exhaustion, too. 

He slept like the dead and woke up to another two mile run.

***  
They won the next game. No one was entirely sure whether it was because the team was strong and getting stronger now that all of their players were off the injured list, or if it was because the McKinley cheerleaders came down to root for Dalton that weekend.

Santana rolled her eyes when Kurt came up, but Brittany explained that she missed her favorite dolphin and wanted to do something nice.

“Porcelain, my team doesn’t feel like winners this year because they’ve been cheering for losers. All right, so they’re not as big a losers as last year, but that was a way of winning at losing because being worst in the league is definitive – just like being the best.”

Kurt nodded. “Makes sense.”

David tugged on his arm and hissed, “No, it doesn’t.”

Kurt ignored him and said, “I really appreciate it coach, and I know Brittany did, too. I liked _Fireworks._ ”

“You know, Porcelain, I thought you had better taste. I’m scrapping that routine. Even Chesty McFakeBoobs can’t get a good arc going from her chest. See you next week.”

David said, “But we’re playing in West Virginia.”

Sue said, “Good. It’ll give me a chance to break out the jet.” She yelled to the Cheerios to get on the bus and waved vaguely in their direction.

David said, “Do you think they’ll show up?”

Kurt shrugged. “It’s hard to tell with Coach Sylvester. They might. We should warn our opponents.”

“Someone should warn us!” David said.

***  
David and Wes looked around the garage. One of the mechanics came up and asked them if they needed help, and they asked for Burt Hummel.

A few minutes later, Burt came out and said, “David, right? You came to that football game with Kurt and Blaine.”

“Yes, sir. This is Wes. He’s the chief Warbler, sort of.”

Wes raised an eyebrow at David, then shook Burt’s hand warmly. 

“So is Kurt in some sort of trouble?”

Wes said, “No, sir. We just…”

David took over. “I’m on the soccer team with Kurt. Our last home game is on Saturday, and I wanted to ask you to attend.”

“Yeah, I didn’t hear much about it after you lost those games in Toledo. How are you doing?”

David said, “If we win on Saturday, we’re number one in the state. If St. John’s loses, we’re still number one even if we lose. The Regional playoffs start the week after that and Mister Grossman thinks we have a good chance.”

Burt blinked. “This is like college recruitment level good.”

Wes said, “Yes, sir. I’ll be going to Johns Hopkins on a lacrosse scholarship next year, and scouts are already talking about scholarships for David even though he won’t graduate for another year.”

Burt said, “Kurt’s just a benchwarmer, though.”

David said, “He’s a sweeper. His quickness has been a key part of the team’s strategy.”

“He told me he’d only made that one goal.”

“That’s right,” David said. “But he has more assists than any other player in the state. Seriously, I think there’ve been maybe three goals since he joined the team that he didn’t assist with.”

Burt said, “This doesn’t get back to Kurt.”

David and Wes both nodded solemnly.

“He talks about it the way he talks about Broadway – like something far away. I just, I guess I thought, hell, what do I know about soccer? I thought it was just a requirement he had to fulfill, that he might be embarrassed if I showed up and saw he was a bench for games. Though, God knows, I’ve sat through more than a few basketball games where Finn was just on the bench.”

Wes said, “Does that mean you’ll come?”

David said, “It’s the last home game. If we make it to regionals, we’ll be playing at OSU or another college stadium.”

Burt said, “We’ll be there.” He sighed. “Actually, this is nearly as awkward as talking to one of you Dalton kids last week.”

Wes said, “Who?”

“Blaine. Said I needed to talk to Kurt about sex.”

Wes put his head in hands, and David said, “Yes, that’s our very awkward friend.”

“Well, it seems like you’re all Kurt’s friends, too.”

Wes said, “We try to be, Mister Hummel.”

*** 

The Warblers had lost Regionals, but they were at the soccer game in full force. Wes and Blaine found the Hummels and Finn as they came in, and helped them find space in the stands. Mercedes, Mike, and Tina joined them right away, and the rest of New Directions came right after the game started. 

Kurt was in the opening line-up as sweeper. David had moved to center forward because their usual forward had torn a tendon in the middle of the last game. He’d only been in the position a week, but he was confident with Kurt behind him watching the opposition and he knew the rest of their defense was strong.

The first half was fast and brutal. Summit Country Day School made one goal on them, and had managed to knock one of the Dalton fullbacks out of the game. Mister Grossman got their substitute in quickly, and the ref had called the penalty which left Summit a man down. 

David exchanged a glance with Kurt and when the ball was kicked into play, Kurt got it and dribbled past the midfield to where David was waiting in the perfect position. The assist was perfect and they ended the first half 1-1.

In the stands, the Warblers and New Directions had mingled and come up with a completely silly set of close harmony chants to keep the crowd rooting for the Cardinals. 

Burt watched the team leave the field at the half and turned to Carole, “Is it just me? Or is he good?” 

“Honey, I don’t know, but Kurt certainly looks like he’s playing well.”

***  
The second half started slowly with both teams jockeying for advantage. About fifteen minutes into it, Kurt stole the ball from Summit, and from then on Dalton had its own way on the field. When the final whistle blew, Dalton had won the game 4-1.

Kurt was hoisted on his teammates shoulders until he begged to be let down. 

Burt ran up to him and hugged him tightly. “I don’t know much about soccer, but that was beautiful. I was on the edge of my seat.” He hugged his son again.

“I’m so glad you got to see us win.” Kurt beamed with happiness.

“Yeah, you’re state champions. State! That’s fantastic.”

Finn came up and put a hand on Kurt’s shoulder. “Yeah, like McKinley didn’t even make it to the playoffs. But we did win half our games.”

“That’s great, Finn,” Kurt said and hugged his brother.

From out of the crowd of blue blazers, Blaine came running up. He held out a pint of chocolate milk, and then put his hand on Kurt’s jaw and kissed him. There was a whoop from the team and Kurt’s friends, and they broke the kiss. Kurt’s smile got even wider as he pulled Blaine close and held him tightly.

David clapped him on the back. “Get changed, Kurt. I’m sure your family will wait.”

Burt said, “Isn’t there some big celebration with the team?”

David said, “Yes, Mister Hummel. We all have free passes off campus tonight. That’s the best reward we can get. Oh, and Kurt, pizza party in the Senior Commons tomorrow night.”

“So I guess we’re not getting pizza,” Burt said.

Kurt said, “There’s a Chinese place that’s on the road home and it’ll have some vegetarian things for Rachel.”

“Chinese it is. Go, get changed we’ll wait out front.” Burt rested his hand on Blaine’s shoulder, and turned to the crowd. “Get organized in the cars, and I’ll get the information about the restaurant from Blaine.”

Blaine glanced at Burt Hummel and shivered. 

Burt said, “I’ve never seen him look happier. That gets you a bit of slack. But did you want me to have that talk with him for your benefit?”

Blaine said, “No. At that moment, I didn’t know, realize that he was the one I’d been waiting for. I was blind.” He swallowed hard, lifting his jaw to look Burt in the eye as he said it.

“You know, kid. Most people don’t know or realize in time or have the courage to follow through with it. I’ll tell you, though, that talk was embarrassing, but probably necessary.” Burt patted Blaine’s shoulder. “I know you don’t have the same pass, but do you think you could join us for dinner?”

Blaine smiled and Kurt came running out, “Please come, if you don’t think everyone will be too overwhelming.”

Burt saw where their hands had already twined together. 

Blaine said, “I have to go sign out. I’ll meet you there in ten minutes, all right?”

Kurt and Burt started to walk to the parking lot. “It’s been a big week for you,” Burt said. 

“The best part was seeing you in the stands, Dad.” Kurt sighed and then corrected himself. “Second best. I have a boyfriend, Dad.”


End file.
